FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- With an early goal in either half, the top-ranked Christopher Newport women's soccer team advanced to the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Championship Game following a 2-0 win over Mary Washington (8-9-3). The Captains' defense locked up the team's tenth consecutive shutout with a dominant show of possession against the Eagles while the top-seeded CNU squad improved to 16-0-1 overall this season.
 
With the clean sheet, Christopher Newport has now logged a consecutive shutout streak of 929 minutes and 18 seconds. Among them, rookie goalkeeper Amy Sidaway has played 861:49 straight without giving up a goal, which is just shy of a top-25 run in NCAA Division III history.
 
The Captains will play for a third consecutive conference title against either #2 UC Santa Cruz or #3 Salisbury, who will face off in the other C2C Semifinal matchup on Friday afternoon. Kickoff in the title game is set for Sunday, November 5 at Noon.
 
The Captains got out to an early lead when leading scorer Hanna Heaton put away a loose ball in the box for her fifth goal of the season. The eventual game-winning goal was scored in just the eighth minute of action as the CNU attack pressured Mary Washington goalkeeper Sydney Alexander. The defense failed to clear a pass into the box and Heaton rushed through with a pinpoint shot into the right pocket of the goal.
 
Led by veterans Reanna Slater and Nyah Savage with underclassmen Kyleigh Gough and Bella DiTommaso, the CNU defense dominated 50-50 balls and possessed the ball for the majority of the half. Playing through midfielders Ellie Cox and Clare Davis, the Captains looked to add to the lead, but were unable to add another goal in the first half.
 
Early in the second half, though, Christopher Newport turned to first team All-Conference forward Emma Ricci for the insurance tally. After a restart from Sidaway, the Captains possessed the ball near midfield on the sideline. Bella DiTommaso saw Ricci calling for the ball in a one-on-one situation and delivered a long pass that bounced right in front of the senior attacker. With her defender on her back, Ricci allowed the ball to bounce past and then spun on her Eagles counterpart, sprinting to the ball with nothing but the goalkeeper to beat. Ricci surveyed the goal and then hammered a low grounder into the left side of the goal, under the diving keeper.
 
Her fifth goal of the season doubled the Captains lead in the semifinal matchup and proved to hold up as the final score, 2-0. It came just over four minutes into the second stanza.
 
CNU outshot the home team, 8-4, and Sidaway faced just a single shot on goal. Slater, the C2C Defensive Player of the Year, led a defensive effort that surrendered just four total attempts. The one attempt on target by the Eagles came in the 42nd minute as a shot by Maci Landel came from outside the box and Sidaway collected it with ease. She has now snared 25 saves on 26 shots on-goal this season and boasts a 0.08 goals-against average in 13 starts.